January 2014 Meeting

We started the New Year going gang busters with 3 demonstrations!  First we had lunch and chit chat.  Then came Show and Tell.  Elaine has been very busy knitting lots of warm, pretty hats for her charity.

She showed us how she knits them the "mile a minute" method

BJ had a couple of hats also, she was learning her "new to her" Electronic Bulky 270

and a lovely scarf also made on the Bulky, but with yarn usually used on a standard gauge

Also, a neat little tool she found on Amazon to help with picking yarn loops off of gate pegs! A lighted dental tool!

Kim showed us how to knit her beautiful ruffle yarn scarf on the bulky. I love the sequin yarn she uses as the main yarn :-)

Elaine gave a hat demonstration on her "baby" Bond, she is such a good teacher!

And I loved the demonstration of the little flower to put on the hats !

Leigh (a non machine knitter-for now) wanted to try her hand and she made a child's hat on Kim's bulky

 and learned the mattress stitch!

Lastly, we got Kim's motor all lined out and tested and she learned how to use the electronic patterning on her Brother Bulky 270!  We had a full and wonderful meeting.

2013 Holiday Meeting

As usual we combined our November and December meeting into one for obvious reasons :-) So yesterday we had a potluck party/meeting at Kim's house. Lots of fun was had by all!  We started with time to set up machines and chit chat.  We caught up with old friends and met new friends.

We even got to meet Kim and Carl's 3 week old puppies!

Then we moved to a potluck lunch, lots of yummies which I was apparently so busy eating I did not get any pictures of!

We had decided to do a gift exchange this year and some really wonderful things were made and exchanged, we are such an eclectic crafty group :-) 

 

Then we moved on to our project this month, which was fingerless mittens.  They can be done several ways and on any machine. 

We all want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Our next meeting is scheduled for January 25th with the project TBA.

Yes, we are BACK!

We have had a very hard time all getting together for a meeting over the summer! There has been some good times, and some bad times.  Good times where Reba, Kim and BJ have traveled to 3 MK seminars, and bad times where health is iffy and dear ones have passed. 

But we continue to persevere and we had some new interest in the Illinois part of our area.  It is so wonderful we have some many states close to draw from.   BJ did a machine knitting demonstration at a local gift shop and met some gals interested in machine knitting, one even had a Bond under her bed!  Kim met a lady at a yard sale that used to MK a lot and indeed still had her machine and wants to get back into the swing.  So we decided to have a meeting at Kim's house and she put a call out on Facebook to anybody who might want to come and see this wonderful craft :-)  We ended up with 3 adventurous souls and I think we have some new MKers!!!!  Kim had a wonderful luncheon for us all,

there was lots of show and tell,

we spread out our library of books and magazines,

and showed off some machine knitting to the prospective new knitters!

A good time was had by all and new friends were made!

April 2013 Meeting

Hello Spring! (maybe) seeing as the weather is being downright ornery in some places.  We had a nice meeting Saturday April 27th with 5 members in attendance.  Reba, BJ, Alysha, Melody and Kim.  As always we had lunch and social time :-) Melody brought her Studio 360 carriage that was locked up so we fired up the blow dryer and oil bottles.  We got one drum to spin, but the other one is locked solid.  Alysha volunteered her husband to look at it further! Reba, BJ and Kim had been to the Spring Fling in Peru, IN and told how much fun they had and lots of new things that were learned.  Kim was very smitten with the wire knitting class we took and brought samples to show us!

 

She found the perfect wire to use online

 

Alysha showed us her ruffled scarves and explained the difference in the ways they can be made.

Then gave us a demonstration on how to do these on the machine using the garter bar.  It looks very easy once you get a good rhythm going :-)

We sure did miss our members who were unable to make it.  It was an awesome meeting and I can't wait till our next meeting on June 1st!